Ease My Pain
by teenagecon
Summary: From OC's POV. Penny is the younger sister of Carley. Penny finds comfort in this dark place in which they are all bound to death when two boys; Ben and Travis; join their desperate group.


**So, this is my first ever fic. Not very sure how fanfiction works yet, so don't hate me if I do something wrong haha.**

**Also, I'm British so I'm sorry if I get any American lingo wrong!**

**I am in love with this game, it's the first time I've preferred a game to its origin; (the tv show/comics). And I found Ben's character really interesting, I thought it might be interesting to keep Travis alive.**

**Also, I'm going to try to give all the chapters either song titles/lyrics/album names.**

* * *

Sitting in the rusty lawn chair and closing my eyes, I listen to the sound of Clementine hitting a football against the barrels. The rhythmic sound calming me. I find it easier to sleep during the day, I can't stand the thought of walkers tearing through our camp during the darkness and near to no one being awake to stop it. I hear a soft whistle from Lilly; disturbing my rest and signalling Clementine to stop. I look up at Lilly, she's got her shotgun aimed at something in the forest. I immediately duck down as everyone else does, pushing my blonde curls behind my ear, I scan the camp for my sister.

"Carley?" I call.

"Shut the fuck up!" Lilly hisses down at me, but I'm relieved to see Carley walking, low and quickly towards where Lilly is aiming her shotgun.

"I'm fine." she whispers.

"Get the gets open! We've got wounded." I hear a familiar voice shout. We all rush towards the gates, I stand by my sister's side.

"Come on, come on!" Kenny says, as Lee proceeds to push open the gate.

"Oh my God!" Katjaa exclaims as we are all in awe at the sight of Mark carrying a one-legged unconscious man on his shoulders.

"What happened!?" she asks for all of us. The first person to pull through himself through the gate is a lanky boy, who looks no older than myself. Followed by a shorter boy with darker hair, who looks of similar age.

"Who the hell are these people!?" Larry shouts aggressively.

"What's going on?" Carley and I ask.

"I don't have time to explain!" Lee says, pulling through the gates.

"Lee, are you okay?" Clementine asks.

Mark follows Katjaa's instructions and carefully places the man into the back of the truck. We're all surrounding this man.

"Kat, can you fix him?" Kenny asks his wife.

"Lee!" Lilly hisses.

"Jesus Ken, I don't know!"

"Lee!" Lilly repeats, louder this time. Everyone turns silent and turns to her. "What the hell?! You can't just be bringing new people here!" Kenny snarls at her, "What are you thinking?!"

Carley turns to me and rolls her eyes; another argument from Lilly.

"Do you wanna calm down for a fucking minute?" Kenny barks.

"Hey, watch your mouth!" Larry says, defending his daughter.

"No I don't! I want to know why you thought bringing more mouths to feed was a good idea."

"He would've died if we left him." Lee says darkly.

"So what?" Larry says, Lee ignores him.

"We are not responsible for every struggling survivor we come across! **We** have to focus on **our** group! Right here, right now." Lilly shouts at Lee, stepping closer to him.

"You guys might not wanna shout so loud, there are walkers around in case you forgot." I remind her.

"What? So someone else can fight them off? You don't do shit for this group." Lilly hisses.

"Hey! Don't talk to her like that! She can take care of herself just fine." Carley defends me. I know she's right, I'm just afraid of being alone.

"Come on Lilly. These are people! People trying to survive just like us." Mark points out. "We've gotta stick together to survive."

Lilly turns and glares at him, "The only reason you're here is because you had food. Enough for **all** of us." Mark steps away from her and looks down to the ground. "But that food is almost gone, and I don't suppose you guys are carrying any groceries, are you?!" she hisses, shifting her glare onto the two boys.

"Does it look like it?" the dark haired one says confidently. Then way he stood was as if he were taller than the other, with his shoulders rolled back and his head held high.

"Travis don't." The other had his shoulders slouched and obviously looked uncomfortable with his height.

"Fine. You guys fight it out then." he sighs and turns to the two boys, "Welcome to the family, kids."

"Come over here and see what I drew." Clementine says to the strangers, tugging on the taller one's sleeve.

"What? No I-"

"C'mon on Ben." the dark haired one says.

"Just come on, okay?" she says, trying to pull him away from the argument, making me smile. She wraps her hand around his little finger and drags him away. The darker haired one follows, I watch the tall one shyly look at her drawings.

"You like to think you're the leader of this little group, but we can make our own goddamn decisions!" Kenny says as Lilly snarls at him, "This isn't your own personal dictatorship!"

"Oh come on! You're being dramatic." Carley says, Kenny and Lilly turn to her, "Everything always turns into a power struggle between you two. I'm not gonna be a part of that."

Carley turns away, pulling me away with her. We walk over to Clementine and Duck, who are drawing on a thin wooden plank with chalk.

"Are you okay?" she asks, concerned, "You look cold."

"I'm fine." I say, forcing a smile. When this all started I was wearing a tank top and skinny jeans, both used to be tighter on me, but now they're looser. All I could find in the motor inn was a thin, barely warm, zip up sweater. I've always been thin; thin but strong. But since food has been a struggle to find; I'm beginning to loose muscle and my bones are beginning to become visible. Carley sits down in a lawn chair and I sit on the concrete opposite the two strangers and Clementine. I smile at the kids.

"What you drawing?" I ask. Clementine looks up, pleased I've taken an interest.

"It's a dog and a kitty." she says smiling, she looks down at her picture and loses her smile, "I wanted to draw a rainbow, but there weren't enough colors."  
I nod and look over to the strangers, the taller boy is slouched forward and watching Clementine draw but looks as if there are other things on his mind. I want to ask him.

I'm about to ask him before Duck says to me and Carley, "This is Ben and Travis."

Carley just nods in their direction. Ben looks at me, his blue eyes striking me.

"Penny." I say, forcing a smile. I gesture to Carley and say, "This is my sister Carley."

"Ben and Travis are 18 like you Penny!" Duck exclaims, Ben looks at me briefly, but when my gaze meets his he immediately looks away. But Travis has no shame, he just stares at me, taking in my appearance; making me feel uncomfortable. "You look younger."

"Travis." Ben hisses, but he's right. I've never had any curves, if it weren't for my height, my delicate features and my long thick hair I could probably be mistaken for a little boy.

I tug at my jeans and correct Duck, "Uh I'm 17."

"Oh. Sorry."

I smile, "No it's okay!"

I cross my legs and fiddle with the laces on my black converses. We cut the the laces shorter when Carley and I were running from three walkers, she shot two but when the third approached me I tripped on my laces and fell flat on my face. I would have been devoured there if it weren't for Carley. Needless to say I wasn't reluctant to cut them shorter, being in a zombie apocalypse definitely makes your appearance seem like the last thing on your mind.

"You in high school then?" Travis asks me.

"I was."

He raises his eyebrows.

"What? You think I'm in middle school?" I say, sneering at him.

He shrugs, pressing tiny stones from the concrete between his fingers so they ping out. One pings in my eye.

"Ow what the hell?" I exclaim.

"Travis..." Ben says, though his voice is not is authoritative. It sounds more like a question.

"It was an accident!"

"If we wanna stay here you've gotta actually be nice." Ben shuffles, obviously uncomfortable with telling Travis what to do. "I know you find that hard."

"Whatever." he scoffs, brushing it off.

"Travis." Ben hisses.

"Didn't you hear them?" Travis asks, lowering his voice, "Once that woman cleans up Mr Parker we're leaving." he sighs, "They don't want us here."

I look up and see Lilly handing pieces of food to Lee. Everyone turns and desperately looks at him. He walks over to Clementine first and gives her half an apple. Poor girl, half an apple for the whole day can't be enough for a growing girl. He then hands Duck some beef jerky, his and Clementine's enthusiasm for life is what keeps most of us going. I'd hate to lose that.

"Hey Penny." I look up, "Want something to eat?" the kind African American man asks, his voice warm.

My stomach growls desperately for the cheese and crackers in his hands.

"Are you sure?" I ask, wanting to seem strong, but hoping he'll hand them to me anyway.

"Yeah. You need it."

I bite my lip, "You think Lilly will mind if I share it with Carley?"

Lee shrugs, "Don't see why."

I reluctantly take it from him, "Thanks Lee."

"No problem."

I push my thick blonde curls behind my ear and sit up, leaning over to Carley. Who has her eyes closed.

"Carley." I say, nudging her gently.

"Hmm." she opens her eyes, "You okay kid?"

"I'm fine. Lee gave me some cheese and crackers, said we could share." I carefully pull back the plastic and hold the packet out to her. She resists.

"C'mon, you didn't eat yesterday." she sits up in her chair, "Please."

She rolls he eyes, "Alright."

As we shared it between us I could feel Ben's eyes on me, obviously desperate for something to eat. I couldn't offer.

"I'd do anything to be locked in that gym again." Ben says desperately to Travis. I sit down again, having finished the crackers. This time closer to the boys. This is the first time I've been around anyone my age for months.

Travis scowls at Ben, "Are you nuts? It was horrible in there."

"I know. I was just saying." he shuffles again, "It started off safe." He turns to Katjaa, tending to their teacher's wound, "Now Mr Parker's going to die."

"Shut up." Travis hisses, brushing off Ben's concern.

"What school did you go to?" Carley asks, licking out the cheese remains in the plastic container, making me smile.

Travis points to his varsity jacket, the letters 'SM'.

Carley pauses, "And what school is that?"

"Stone Mountain." Ben says, when he realises Travis won't.

"Oh really? I did a news report there." Ben raises his eyebrows and nods.

"Yeah, I remember that." I say, remembering it was the week after our mom had died. We'd had the funeral the day before, I didn't want to be alone. So Carley suggested I go with her and the crew to Stone Mountain. After that I went with her to news reports as many times as I could.

"Yeah do you remember? About that kid in your school who went missing." she thinks for a moment, "Robert? I think that was his name."

"Robbie Parsons." Travis says. "He was in the grade below; I knew him."

"Wow."

"Everyone made him out to be this innocent victim." Travis squints his eyes, "He was selfish. Got into hard drugs and then went missing at this house party." Travis crushes the stones with his feet, enjoying the crunching sound it makes against the concrete, "He'd had way too much to drink... Aswell as other things."

"Jesus. Wish we'd had you in our crew." Carley says, trying to lighten the mood. "We were on our way to Macon when this all happened."

"Pretty lucky." I add, "If we'd stayed in Atlanta we'd be in shit. I bet the place is over run with walkers."

"We were on our way to football play offs." Ben says.

I look him, in disbelief. A tall skinny guy didn't look like he played football.

"I played in the varsity band." he says, realising.

"Oh." I smile, he timidly looks away.

I hear a sudden scream from Katjaa, making everyone turn around.

"Oh my God!" Carley exclaims, grabbing her gun.

"The axe! Hurry!" Lee shouts to Mark, his voice panic stricken.

"Get the kids safe! Now!" Carley tells me, I nod but I'm already halfway there.

"What's going on?" Duck asks, scanning the motor inn for his mother. We try to shield Clementine and Duck from so much horror, I'd hate for them to be forced to grow up and have their innocence taken from them. I take them upstairs and tell them to stay up there until it's safe. I grab my gun in case they need me. I haven't used it on walkers yet, only ever when Carley's been teaching me. As I run down the stairs I see Lee falling off the back of the truck with a zombified Mr Parker crawling over him. My breath quickens. I get the gun out and try to stop my hand shaking and aim. But just as I'm about to shot.

BANG

Carley shoots it. Lee pushes the creature off him and Carley calmly leans down beside him.

"You okay?" she asks.

"Yeah." he takes a breath, "Thanks."

"Why'd you bring him hear in the first place, asshole!?" Larry shouts.

"Dad, calm down." Lilly says, standing between them.

He ignores her, "You're gonna get us ALL killed!"

Ben and Travis approach the corpse of their teacher.

"Shit, man." Travis whispers.

"Why didn't you tell us he was bitten!?" Kenny screams at the boys.

"What? Are you kidding?!" Travis exclaims.

"He was bitten and you didn't say a goddamn word!"

"That's because he wasn't bitten!"

"Well your 'not bitten' friend came back to life and tried to kill my wife!" Kenny shouts.

"Travis, they don't know." Ben says to Travis, who's scowling at Kenny.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Kenny asks, squaring up to Ben.

"It's not the bite that does it." Travis reveals, as Clementine and Duck walk carefully down the stairs.

"What do you mean?" I ask, stepping closer to the boys.

"You come back no matter how die. If you don't destroy the brain, that's just what happens." he looks over to Duck and Clementine, "It's gonna happen to all of us."

"God help us." Lee says, his eyes desperate.

"It makes sense, in those first days it spread so fast." Mark takes a breath.

"Car accidents, suicides, everything was making more of them." Lilly adds, her eyes pained and squinted.

"When we first saw it happen, we were all hiding out in a gym and everybody thought we were finally safe." Ben says, looking over to Travis before continuing, "But one of the girls, Jenny Pitcher I think, I guess she couldn't take it. She took some pills. A lot of them." he pauses, obviously struggling to re-tell the story, "Someone went in the girls' room the next morning and... God." Everyone winces, sympathetic towards him.

"Back off!" We all turn to see Carley aiming her gun at two men.

"Whoa, lady, relax! Me and my brother, we- we just want to know if ya'll can help us out." the bigger one says, while the other has his hands part-way up.

"I said back off!"

"Carley..." Lilly says to her, wanting to hear what the two men have to say.

"We don't want any trouble." Lee says to the men, always the peace maker.

"Of course. Neither do we. I'm Andy St. John. This here's my brother Dan. We're just out looking for gasoline." the bigger one says. Everyone is trading looks.  
"Looks like you folks got the motel locked down, which is fine, but if you could spare any gas we'd be much obliged."

Carley holds her breath, "Why do you need gas?" she asks, her gun still pointing at them.

"Our place is protected by an electric fence. Generators provide the electricity." the smaller one says. Everyone is exchanging glances again.

"Our generators run on gas." the taller on adds. "Look, we own a dairy farm a few miles up the road. If ya'll be willing to lower your guns, we can talk about some kind of trade."

Silence falls upon the group.

"How are ya'll doing on food?" the shorter one says, "We got plenty at the dairy."

I can almost hear everyone's stomachs rumbling. Lilly looks over to Lee, "Lee, why don't you and Mark check the place out, see if it's legit."

Carley lowers her gun and turns to Lee, "I'm going with you, I got your back if anything seems fishy."

"So, what are ya'll thinking?" one of the brother asks.

"We'll bring some gas to your dairy. In exchange, you give us some food to bring back. We'll see how it goes from there." Lee says, authoritatively. Carley and I agree he'd make a better leader than Kenny or Lilly. But I'm starting to think she has a thing for Lee, I wouldn't be surprised; she's had a lot of boyfriends in the past.

"Sounds fair." the tall one says, smiling, "A couple of gallons should power one of our generators for a while."

We follow the brothers up to the dairy, giving me another chance to talk to the two boys.

"I think I remember you." Ben says to me.

I look up at him, "Yeah?"

"Yeah. You were in the camera crew's van." he rubs the back of his neck, "With this uh- sketchbook."

"I'm surprised you recognise me." I say, raising my eyebrows and folding my arms. Remembering my sketchbook which has probably been lost forever, or worse.

"He probably thought you were hot." Travis cuts in bluntly, with a grin on his face.

I laugh, feeling my cheeks blaze. I look up at Ben, his cheeks are also a shade of scarlet.

"I actually meant without make up, and how much skinnier I am." I say, smiling. Travis' words roll through my thoughts again. "Why? Do **you** think I'm hot?"  
I stand taller, my shoulders rolled back and my head held high. I laugh.

He shrugs with a smirk, "You're alright."

I kick his leg. He lets out a cry of pain, making Ben and I laugh.

"Ben's the one who's never had a girlfriend." Travis roughly pushes his hands through his hair. Trying to shift the attention back onto Ben.

I push my blonde curls behind my ear and look up at Ben, "Really?"

I raise my eyebrows. He seems sweet; I'm surprised no girl had ever taken an interest. He shyly rubs the back of his neck; making me smile.

"I know right!" Travis laughs, I roll my eyes. "Eighteen years old and not one girlfriend."

"Yeah? Well at least I don't sleep around." Ben says, in his defence.

"Please, it's not like I'm a girl." Travis says, he's right. Boys give praise to boys who 'sleep around'. But when it's girls sleep around they're called 'sluts' and 'whores'. I have had boyfriends in the past and I've had sex with one. He turned out not to be a nice guy, and he told his friends. Soon half the school knew and they were calling me a 'slut' and a 'whore' yet my ex-boyfriend, by that point, received praise.

"You know double standards are stupid. If sex makes a girl a slut it should make a boy a slut too." I say, I've always been very opinionated. I wanted to study philosophy in college before all this happened. "How many girlfriends have you had then?"

He thinks for a moment, using his fingers to count, making me roll my eyes and scoff. He notices and smiles.

"Eleven." he says, smugly.

I look up at Ben, not believing it, "How many girlfriends has he **actually** had?"

Ben laughs, "Eleven!"

I raise my eyebrows, "Seriously?"

He shrugs and nods.

"Okay, how many did you sleep with?" I ask.

He gives me knowing look, that tells me he's slept with all eleven.

"Wow." I say after taking my eyes off his and look ahead.

"Exactly." Ben says, letting out a quiet laugh.

* * *

When we got to the farm they gave us a basket of biscuits to take back to Kenny, his family and Lilly and Larry. The boys and I walked back with Carley. We were feeling pretty positive, glad to have found a safe place and we looked forward to having a meal later.

"How was it?" Lilly asks Carley as we arrive through the gates.

"Secure." she replies, "Much safer than here."

Lilly nods, and looks down at the basket Carley is holding.

"It's biscuits. Their mom made them for us." Carley says, handing them over to Lilly. As Lilly opens the basket, her eyes gleam with anticipation.

"Is this it!?" she exclaims.

"They offered us dinner with them too." I add, before she has a chance to shout at Carley. "We can take you all up there before it gets dark." I suggest, as Lilly and Larry, Kenny and his family all share the biscuits between them.

"Aw yeah biscuits!" Duck exclaims, before then devouring one almost in one bite; making me smile.

"Actually. I'm gonna stay here." Carley says, sitting down on a lawn chair, "Keep watch while you're gone."

"Carley no-"

"It's fine Penny. I've eaten one too many biscuits anyway." she says, forcing a smile. Something she's good at; being a news reporter.

"Carley you shouldn't stay here alone." Katjaa says. I know she's right and I want to volunteer, but the empty pang in my stomach stops me.

"It's okay Katjaa. Besides, their cow's sick and Mark promised them you'd tend to it."

Katjaa laughs softly, "I was going to suggest one of the boys stay here with you."

"Oh." Carley looks over to them, "Either of you know how to shoot?"

"No." Ben says, at the same time Travis says, "Yes."

Carley looks at Travis with a smile.

"Aw come on!" Travis exclaims, "I didn't even have any biscuits, Ben had mine."

"I suppose I could teach Ben how to shoot." Carley thinks for a moment, "If it's okay with you, kid."

I look at her, surprised she called him a 'kid' when he's only four years younger.

"Uh- yeah." Ben squirmed, obviously not comfortable with the idea of being split up from Travis. "Sure."

"Alright, I guess that's the plan." Carley says; pleased with her decision.

Travis pushes Ben, signalling him to move away from the group. They usually separate themselves from us. Only me or Clementine spend any time with them.

"Aren't I the best wingman ever?" I hear Travis say to Ben.

"What?" Ben asks, seeming a little put out.

"A wingman. You know, like in a bar there's a guy who has a fr-"

"I know what a wingman is." Ben cuts him off.

"Well I just got you alone with a hot woman for the evening!" Travis says, almost expecting applause. Ben says nothing. "A little gratitude would be nice!"

"Gratitude?" Ben says, his brow clouded, "It's gonna be so awkward." Ben says under his breath, making Travis roar with laughter; revealing his true intentions.

* * *

I took the group up to the farm, leaving Ben and Carley behind. Travis and I spent most of the afternoon together, playing on the swing with Duck and Clementine, lying in the fields and sitting in the warm barn with the cow. It felt so good to able to forget about walkers for a while, and be able to spend time with someone my age. For a while the closest person to my age was Duck, so it was refreshing to talk to someone with the same perspective as mine. Being able to have a proper conversation.

We're sitting in the barn; it had gotten dark so we decided to stay close to the group. Travis is sitting on a chair backwards, with one arm resting on the back support, the other petting the cow's head.

"You worried about your sister?" he asks, seeing the concern in my eyes.

"Yeah." I say, sitting on a chair beside him, my legs crossed. "She'll be fine though. She always is." I say, smiling; trying to reassure myself. I lock eyes with him,

"What about you?"

"Carley?" he frowns.

"Ben." I say, rolling my eyes.

"Oh." he shrugs, taking his gaze away from me, "I guess."

"You guess? How long have you known him?" I ask, something I'd been curious about.

He takes a breath, "Since we were kids." he takes his hand away from the cow, "You know he didn't always used to be so shy and awkward."

"I find that hard to imagine." I say, smiling.

"We used to be similar, loud, hyper, crazy kids." he looks over at Duck, "Like Duck."

"What happened?"

He shrugs, "He got bullied a lot and I used to sort them out, but then I had to repeat 4th grade and he didn't have anyone to take care of him. So that happy, smiling little kid got beaten out of him." he paused, "Literally." he turns his face away from me for a moment. "He's like a brother, y'know?" he takes a breath and looks down at the cow again. "I dunno. I felt like it was my fault. Like he was my responsibility."

I frown gently, "It wasn't."

He realises how much he'd sidetracked and pulled himself together, "Sorry." he lets out a nervous laugh, "You asked me how long I've known him; ten years."

"It's not your fault." I say, placing my hand on his arm. He looks up at me, his eyes dark and warm. The moment we hear the bell for dinner they turn cold again, and I pull away.

"C'mon, let's eat."

* * *

We all sit around the table, the anticipation of a proper meal was making my stomach roar, now seeing the food in front of me was killing me.

"Alright everybody, dig in." the St John's mother says.

I place string beans on my plate, even using silverware was a luxury. Travis has already filled his plate and is eating an like animal.

"Travis." I scold him.

"I'm so hungry." he says, with a mouthful of food, making me laugh.

As I'm sliding pieces of meat onto my plate I hear, "Clementine, NO!"

I turn around to see Lee in the doorway, panic in his eyes. I drop my fork as Clementine does.

"Lee, Jesus, man! Did you find something?" Kenny asks.

"Sit your ass down, Lee. This lady has made you meal." Larry says, authoritatively.

"Yeah, Lee, what's gotten into you?" his daughter adds.

"You need to get some God damn manners."

"It didn't have to be this way." one of the brothers says under his breath, making my pulse quicken.

"What?" I manage to whisper.

"Mark is upstairs with his fucking legs cut off!" Lee shouts, making my stomach turn.

"What the fuck?" Travis manages to say.

"You're EATING him!" Lee adds. My stomach and head begin to swirl.

"That's crazy."

"Now, now." the mother says, trying to calm everyone.

"Oh my God." I whisper, pushing away the pile of once tempting meat in front of me.

Travis stops eating, spitting out the remains of what was in his mouth. "What the fuck?"

"You're scaring the kids, Lee." Kenny says, calmly.

"Lee, what the hell is wrong with you?" Lilly asks, refusing to belief him.

"Don't indulge him Lilly." her father says to her, he narrows his eyes to Lee and adds, "There's always something with this guy."

Katjaa takes the plate from her son. "Mom! I was eating that!"

"What is going on?" Lilly asks.

"Go upstairs and look! You'll find a guy with both of his legs hacked off!" Lee exclaims. Travis is about to say something until he's stopped by his gag reflex, throwing up what he'd eaten of Mark. "This is a dairy, not a ranch! Think about it!"

The reality of the truth slowly sets into everyone's minds. And stomachs. The thought of it making me want to throw up too, even though I hadn't devoured any.

"It's true." the mother confesses.

"Everything coulda turned out okay for you folks." says the more sinister looking one of the brothers, his head faced down at his plate.

"He woulda died anyway! We gotta think about **livin'**!" the other brother adds. Everyone exchanges glances, not sure how to react. Everyone planning their escape routes in their minds, knowing we could be in danger of becoming their next meal.

"Settle down honey." the mother tells her son, "Growin' up in rural Georgia, you're taught not to waste. It's how I was raised and how I raised my boys."

"What the fuck kind of an excuse is that!?" Travis exclaims, once he's stopped throwing up.

Everyone pushes their plates away in disgust.

"I'm gonna puke." Lilly murmurs.

"You're all sick... Sick in the head."

"Lee, that's not a very nice thing to imply." the old lady says, turning to him. "Andy is right, we go after folks who were gonna die anyways, one way or another."

Everyone reaches carefully for their loved ones.

"Like y'all."

His words send chills down my spine. Suddenly I'm glad Carley was left at the motor inn.

"Kenny, get your gun!" Lee exclaims.

"Kenny, no!" Katjaa cries.

"Nobody's going anywhere." the bigger brother, says as he pulls out a gun.

"We've got lots of use for ya'll right here." the more sinister brother says, aiming his gun from person to person around the room.

"Put your guns down! We're walking out of here." Lilly shouts aggressively. I wish it were that easy.

"Don't you go near my fucking family!" Kenny shouts at the St Johns, his voice threatening.

"I don't wanna die! Mommy what did I eat?" Duck cries to his mother, making my heart sink.

"Everyone! Everything will be okay!" Lee says, trying to calm Clementine and Duck more than anyone.

"Lee! Lee..!" Clementine cries. Lee inches towards her, but is frozen as soon as Dan grabs her hair, making her squeal helplessly.

"Let go of her you son of a bitch!" Lee shouts at the disgusting man. But he is frozen once again when the other brother points his gun at him.

There's a sudden sound from upstairs. Everyone turns to the door, their hearts pound and their bodies are frozen stiff.

"Pleeeease." a familiar voice is heard, "Someone."

Everyone gasps as they take in the horrific image of Mark dragging his legless body across the floor, leaving a trail of blood behind him.

"Clementi-" Lee is knocked out.

"Lee!" Clementine squeals.

"YOU FUCKING FREAKS!" Travis shouts, exploding out of his seat. A gun is aimed at him, Travis doesn't sit down. I can see the crazed man is about to fire, and I don't know what comes over me when I grab the shotgun, the bullet shooting straight into my leg.

"SHIT." I let out a cry of pain, the pain goes through my body in waves.

"Penny!" Clementine cries. Before I can do anything, I feel a sudden knocking to my head; I am unconscious.

* * *

"You cannibal fucking, incest, pieces of shit! LET US OUT!" I can hear Travis shouting, his voice somewhat echoing in my head, along with loud banging. But I'm not sure if it's pain or Travis. My eyes flutter open and closed. And open again.

"Penny?" Travis turns around, "Penny are you awake?" he leans down, one of his hands is on my shoulder, the other on my forehead. "Holy shit you're hot."

"You admitted it." I manage to say. I think it makes him smile, but I feel as if the room is spinning around me; I can't tell if it does. I realise I'm sitting rested against a wall, I try to stand up but an overwhelming pain shoots through my leg and my head, and I lose my balance, "FUCK!"

"Whoa whoa whoa." Travis says, "You've been shot, Penny."

"I've been shot?" those words feeling so weird on my lips. I look around the room, taking in my surroundings. We're in a meat locker. Travis turns back to the door and attempts to bang it down again, but it's no use. It's sealed shut.

After sitting there feeling helpless for half an hour, my head spinning and my leg throbbing, the blood had now stained through my jeans and converses and was beginning to stain the floor beneath me too. Travis had tired himself out and was sat next to me, examining my wound.

"You're losing a lot of blood, we're gonna have to put some pressure on it." he says, making me wince.

"Oh God." I manage to say through the pain, gripping my leg tight.

He takes his jacket off, and then removes his tee - leaving just a long sleeve shirt on. He wraps the shirt tightly around my wound, I scream through the pain.

"Sorry." he whispers. Once he's tightened it I find my eyes drifting closed again.

After what feels like hours, my body feels heavy and weak. Travis is examining my leg again, I can see the worry in his eyes. "I'm so tired Travis..." I manage to whisper.

"No no no!" he panics, shifting his gaze onto mine, "Don't fall asleep, okay?"

I nod, but my body disagrees.

"Talk to me." he says, he bites his lip, "Tell me about a good day."

I think for a moment. Carley comes to mind. "We went to the beach for the day." I say with a smile. Travis nods, encouraging me, "In 1st grade, I just turned seven and Carley was twelve. Me and Carley, we found this cave." I have to take a breath, "It lead to this quiet, perfect little beach. It felt like another world. Like the cave led to this magical place, and had taken us away for a day." I take another breath, losing myself in the memory, "We played in the ocean, kicking water at each other and climbing over the rocks. Then we huddled in our cave, daring each other to tell our secrets." I take yet another breath, smiling and looking at Travis this time, "Carley had a lotta crushes." he laughs, taking his eyes away from mine, "It felt so safe, we felt like we could do anything. Like anything that was about to become, we could just stop. And just stay little kids forever." I take a breath, "But then it got dark... And cold." I feel tears beginning to fill in my eyes, the reality of our lives now sinking back into me, "Kinda like now." my voice cracks and my heart sinks. Travis looks at me, his eyes warm and sympathetic. I blink away the tears in my eyes, "It's gonna happen to me now."

"What's going to happen?" Travis asks, his gaze still warm.

"What happened to your teacher. It's gonna happen to me." I take another breath, "I'm gonna turn." I say, my heart beating faster at the thought.

"No." he says, his voice uncertain, "You're gonna be fine."

I look into Travis' gaze, "It's bad isn't it? My leg."

"We're gonna get out of here." he says, avoiding my question, "I promise."

But I know he's lying, I squeeze my eyes shut, the tears fall down my face. I feel light headed and tired. The loss of blood beginning to take its toll on me.

"I don't know if I've just lost a lot of blood but-" I take a deep breath, my head still spinning along with my thoughts, "Come here." I whisper. He leans his face close to mine, I close my eyes and softly sink my lips into his, feeling a rush of warmth for a moment. I pull away and sit back against the wall. I can see he's frowning; questioning me. "Just in case you can't keep your promise."

I hold onto the memory of me and Carley and close my eyes; letting myself go and finding comfort in the achingly painful tiredness. _I'll see you soon, mom._

* * *

**I figured the St Johns would have more than one meat locker, I wanted them to be separated from the rest of the group.**

**I will be continuing this fic, but don't get too comfortable with Travis/OC.**


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